Music business timeline150 years of technology, radio, recording and music

Records as we know them were first sold in 1895 (the rotating disc was used until CD—there was even an early shellac disc which played from the centre outwards like CDs). Amplifiers followed a decade later (1907) but amplification for record players and radio didn’t arrive until 1925. Early amplified records were beyond most households and jukeboxes dominated USA record sales in the 1930s. The war boosted industry and communications but dampened consumption. Amplified record players arrived in every home during the 1950s and ‘60s and the first portable music player—transistor radio—in 1954. Stereo took hold in the late 1960s as corporate pop music emerged from the relentless consolidation of independent labels. In the early 1980s CDs launched the last and biggest phase of record sales. Finally, the overweight and over-priced physical album was ripe for competition and the download boom of 2000 was fuelled by a mass return to the cheaper single format.

It’s worth recalling how everyday life has been changed by the technology we now take for granted. Here’s an abbreviated sequence of music and technical developments over 130 years. I mostly ignore experimental demonstrations and prototypes in favour of changes visible to the general public (some may argue the Mellotron was a sampler etc. but that would rather miss the whole point—I show my choices for controversial innovations).

before 1880—no telephone (Bell)

before 1880—no home electricity

before 1888—no cheap photography (Kodak Box Brownie)

before 1893—no wireless telegraphy (Tesla)

before 1895—no recorded music

before 1913—no cinemas

before 1918—no broadcast music and speech (radio)

before 1919—no airliners

before 1920—no scheduled radio entertainment

before 1925—no amplification

before 1926—no movies with sound

before 1927—no transatlantic telephone

before 1930—no amplification for musicians

before 1930—no tape recorders

before 1932—no electric guitars

before 1935—no electric keyboards

before 1937—no TV

before 1945—no computers

before 1948—no long playing albums

before 1951—no home recording (reel-to-reel tape)

before 1952—no pop music charts

before 1954—no drum machines

before 1962—no audio cassette

before 1964—no pirate radio (Radio Caroline, Radio Veronica broadcast English for a time from 1962)

Notice how home entertainment technology never stood still. This challenges the notion that our last decade (2000 to 2010) was particularly innovative, volatile, or disruptive. Imagine living between 1880 and 1910 (the same time interval as compact disc to present day): electricity, telephone, photography, and records became available; and in the next 15 years: cinema, radio, airliners, and amplification. I would argue the arrival of the Internet is not exceptional historically. The cultural step of telecommunication (from none) is surely steeper than from telecommunication to the network. Here is the detailed chronology.

Little Richard becomes Christian and “retires”
(said to signal the decline of American Rock & Roll)

1958

integrated circuit
Texas Instruments

≡ Warner Bros. Records
formed in Hollywood by Jack Warner for soundtracks

1st stereo records for the general public
mass production of mono recordings ended in 1968Melody Maker album chart
superseded the Record Mirror chartElvis Presley joins the US Army
(said to signal the decline of American Rock & Roll)

1959

drum machine
Wurlitzer Side Man 1st commercial unit

≡ Tamla Records
formed in Detroit by Berry Gordy≡ Motown Records
formed in Detroit by Berry Gordy

Marine Offences Act outlawed pirate radio
midnight 14 August, Caroline continued broadcastingBBC Radio One
1st broadcast 30 SeptemberMonterey International Pop Music Festival
held in California as a 3-day music event for charity